The Curatorial Intensive Montevideo 2026 is an international professional development program organized in collaboration between Independent Curators International (ICI) and ESTE ARTE. It will take place March 14–22, 2026, at the Faculty of Arts of the Universidad de la República (Udelar). The program is designed to strengthen emerging curatorial practices, promote the development of cultural infrastructures, foster artistic creation, and consolidate collaborative networks within the field of contemporary art. It is intended for emerging curators interested in developing conceptual proposals and curatorial projects in an intensive environment that combines seminars, presentations, site visits, and one-on-one advisory sessions with leading professionals from the international art field.

At ESTE ARTE, we are proud to host this edition of the program in Montevideo, where it will engage with the Uruguayan artistic ecosystem and its relationship with global cultural movements. This initiative is made possible thanks to the vision and leadership of Laura Bardier, Director of ESTE ARTE, whose sustained commitment to cultural development has helped strengthen regional and international dialogue within the field of contemporary art.

The Montevideo edition was organized through an open international call, which made it possible to select curators from different countries and professional contexts, creating a space for exchange between Latin America, the United States, and other international art circuits.

CURATORIAL INTENSIVE SYMPOSIUM
SATURDAY, MARCH 21, 2026
1:30 – 5:30 pm
Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales (MNAV)
Av Tomas Giribaldi 2283, Montevideo

Open to the public.
In Spanish and English, with translation.
No prior registration is required.

The Curatorial Intensive Montevideo Symposium will be a public session in which the curators participating in the program will present the curatorial projects and research they are currently developing. The activity will be organized into three thematic panels, where participants will share their curatorial approaches, research methodologies, and works in progress. Each panel will be moderated by one of the Curatorial Intensive faculty members, creating a space for dialogue between the participants and the audience, with time allocated for discussion and questions. Institutional introductions will be delivered by Laura Bardier, Director of ESTE ARTE and Executive Director of the James Howell Foundation; Roxana Fabius, Director of the Museo Nacional de Artes Visuales (MNAV); and Renaud Proch, Executive and Artistic Director of Independent Curators International (ICI).

Profesorado

Marina Reyes Franco is an independent curator and writer based in Puerto Rico.

Ionit Behar is the Marilyn and Larry Fields Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Keyna Eleison is a curator, writer, researcher, Griot heiress and shaman, narrator, singer, ancestral chronicler.

Maya Juracán is a curator, writer, and researcher.

Ana Laura López de la Torre is an artist, educator, activist and community organizer who lives and works in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Victoria Noorthoorn is the Director of Museo Moderno, Buenos Aires.

Participantes

Camila Arbeláez (b. Bogotá, Colombia; based in Uruguay) is an independent curator and researcher. Her research interests encompass contemporary Latin American art, memory, bodies, and ecologies, with a focus on interdisciplinary explorations.

Santiago Ávila Albuja (Quito, Ecuador, 1993) is a visual artist whose independent curatorial practice focuses on artistic processes linked to queer identities from an ecosocial perspective.

Bruna Costa is an art historian, independent curator, and professor who lives and works in Rio de Janeiro.

Guad Creche (Salta, 1985) is an independent art curator and teacher. Their work focuses on supporting critical or experimental artistic processes and exploring the tensions between the local and the global, with an emphasis on diverse identities and contemporary practices from the Northwest region of Argentina.

Cecilia González Godino is an Associate Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia and a writer and researcher of contemporary art from transoceanic, diasporic, and archipelagic perspectives.

Andrés Gorzycki is a curator and visual artist based in Posadas, Argentina. Their practice explores the intersections between contemporary art and public space, investigating how artworks, contexts, and communities shape one another through acts of presence, displacement, and encounter.

Juaniko Moreno is a curator and researcher based in New York and Bogotá. He specializes in modern and contemporary art, with a focus on alternative modernities, cosmotechnics, spirituality, and planetarity.

Paola Nava (Maracaibo, 1994) is a Venezuelan curator and researcher based in Santiago, Chile.

Mateus Nunes (Belém, 1997) is a Brazilian curator and art critic based in São Paulo, and is Assistant Curator at the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand (MASP).

Fabiana Puentes (Montevideo, Uruguay, 1986) is an independent curator, researcher, and professor specializing in contemporary art and critical perspectives.

Luiza Testa is an independent curator who works on projects that articulate social debates in the fields of feminism, sexuality, ecology, and digital art.

Sebastián Valenzuela-Valdivia (Santiago, Chile, 1990) is a researcher, curator, and editor of contemporary art. His practice lies at the intersection of historical research, archival work, and publishing, understood as critical infrastructures for reactivating memories and challenging narratives.